Italian-Style Cream Puffs with Berries

Ingredients

• 250 ml milk
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch sugar
• 75 g butter
• 150 g flour
• 4 eggs
• 0.5 l milk
• 1 Vanilla bean
• 5 egg yolks
• 100 g sugar
• 30 g flour
• 1 pinch salt
• powdered sugar (for dusting)
• 200 g mixed berries (e.g., blueberries and blackberries)
• mint (for garnish)

Instructions

1. 1.

   Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) with top and bottom heat. Bring the milk, a pinch of salt, the sugar, and butter to a boil in a pot. Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough lifts from the pot and a white film forms on the bottom. Transfer the dough to a bowl and gradually fold in the eggs. The dough is ready when it glows and falls off the spoon in thick strands. Pipe the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, forming tennis-ball-sized puffs. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown, then remove and cool.

2. 2.

   Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape out the seeds, and stir them into the milk; bring to a boil. In a bowl whisk the egg yolks with sugar until creamy, then fold in the flour. Whisk the boiling milk into the yolk mixture, pour everything back into the pot, remove the vanilla pod, and simmer over low heat while stirring constantly until it thickens slightly. Strain the custard through a sieve, let cool, and dust the surface lightly with sugar to prevent skin from forming. Slice the puffs horizontally and fill with the custard. Reassemble, press gently together, dust with powdered sugar, and decorate with berries and mint before serving.